The long-awaited Spring gathering of Old Grammarians arrived at the Royal Eastbourne, all looking forward to a feast of great golf and the reawakening of dimming memories of high jinx, sporting prowess, tales of derring-do and of course, academic success.  Sadly they were disappointed on all fronts. Well, not all of them.

The weather was fantastic – a cloudless sky and a cooling easterly breeze. This suited Mark Rayner (17) – AKA the Colonel – to a tee, permitting him to sail around the course and produce a winning score of 43 Stableford points, leaving most of other contestants flailing in his wake.

There were some notable exceptions however. John Bedford (28) pulled out a magnificent 37 points. His determination not to be distracted by the erratic nature of his playing partners and his ability to keep his concentration going in what turned out to be a very long match contributed to the reward of second place.

33 points were shared by John Bateman (12) and Howard Longton (26), John getting the nod for 3^rd place by countback (a golfing term – I won’t elaborate). In 5^th place a steady Paul Gillham (19) followed on 31 points with occasional golfer Bob Reid (30) in 6^th. It all looked so promising after a good front 9 for Bob, followed by 9 points for the next three holes, but it couldn’t possibly last, and it didn’t; he came in with 27. Chris Shadwell (16) had an off day finishing with 26, closely followed by Don Seabright(26), hampered by a gammy knee, and Adrian Wood(30) with no excuses, both on 25, Don shading it on countback. Propping up the list was an unapologetic Nigel Creasy (24) with 23 points; it just wasn’t his day.

In the absence of any Old Gramms top brass, waitress Rhianna added some glamour to the proceedings and presented the Winner’s Cup to Mark, who – with his usual modesty -flourished the cup to the applause of the crowd and took full advantage of the photo opportunity; see below.

Thanks were also lavished on Dave Jeffery for organising the event and on Tony French for deciphering the scorecards and producing the results.

HJL